


Demolition Lovers

by NinesKnives



Category: own works - Fandom
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Angst and Romance, Blood and Violence, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, M/M, Other, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-17 05:54:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28595055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NinesKnives/pseuds/NinesKnives
Summary: Deacon, a teenage student arrives at his new college ready to start the next chapter of his life. However, not everything in this college is as friendly as it seemed.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. An Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody! I hope you enjoy the first chapter of my original work, Demolition Lovers! This time, I DO own the characters in this (aside from celebrities such as bands/band members) and anything that seems related to a real life counterpart is completely unintentional as this is an original piece, not a fanfiction. Come on in to my Discord server, where you can talk with me, other readers, send memes, find other work by me and just have a good time! Link: https://discord.gg/Xxs5KSW

It felt quite strange, walking through these new halls and corridors. Everyone else was walking by, talking to their friends and carrying their own boxes, rucksacks and that of the sort. It was the second day of college and some of the students were only starting today, including Deacon. He looked at a sheet of paper that he was given as he walked, being mindful of other students and he slowly found his new dorm room. The halls were filled with voices and laughter and it seemed like a positive place to be. Deacon went inside and closed the door behind him, laying a couple of stacked boxes down on the floor as well as his rucksack. Taking in his new room, he felt nervous yet calm at the same time and he pulled his phone out, swiping on a message. It was his mother, wondering if he got there okay. Deacon sent back a quick reply before going to his boxes to unpack, mentally thinking of where to put his stuff. Maybe start with the jacket pile. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door before it swung open. Deacon looked at the figure before smiling, widely. The man in the doorway wore a band t-shirt under a black denim jacket, sleeves cut out and skinny jeans. His brown hair flopped down just below his right eye, which seemed to be easy enough to brush out of the way and keep it out of his eye.

“Louis? Holy shit, dude!” The guy identified came into the room and closed the door before throwing his stuff down, happy to see his friend.

“Deek, that you? What’re you doing here?” He looked at the boxes and his eyes went wide for a moment, before a look of joy spread across his face. “Wait...you’re my roomie? AW SICK!” He punched the air happily and threw himself onto his bed, bouncing a little. Deacon simply laughed and placed a few books on his desk before taking his black leather jacket off.

“Yeah bro, here for the next year! How about you?”

Louis sat up, almost unable to contain his excitement at seeing his old friend.

“Same! I got my shit sorted yesterday so I don’t have to worry about unpacking. It doesn’t look like you have a lot, though. I would have offered my help but it’ll take you like what, two minutes?”

Deacon reached over and picked up his rucksack, opening it while paying attention to his old friend.

“Yeah, it won’t take me very long. Here, you can have this if you want.” Deacon threw a can of soda across the room, landing on the bed. “Give it a minute though, probably be quite fizzy right about now. I bought the wrong flavour and if I remember correctly, you...do?...like this flavour, I mean?”

Louis took it and a pen, stabbing the can while opening it at the same time and proceeded to ‘shotgun’ the drink. He chugged for a few seconds before exhaling loudly with a ‘woo’ followed by a considerably loud burp.

“Oof! Excuse me, goddamn!” He laughed and tossed the can into a bin under his desk, showing off. Deacon laughed too.

“Damn dude, where’d you learn that?”

“Lotta lonely nights and crippling alcoholism...just kidding about the alcoholism. Can’t afford to drink every day.”

“Yeah, that’s true. It’s expensive. Wait, lonely nights? You still not gotten yourself a girlfriend?” Deacon opened his own drink and drank some like a normal person.

“Nah dude, fuck knows how. How about you?”

“You know I’m gay, right? You were the first person I told.”

Louis chuckled lightly, thinking of something to say.

“Well, I was just wondering if your gay card expired.”

Now it was Deacon’s turn to laugh. Some of the things that Louis can say tends to be a little on the touchy side for most (understandably) but Deacon understood that he meant well.

“Oh shit yeah, thanks for reminding me. I need to renew my subscription otherwise they’ll make me straight again. Can’t have that.”

“Haha, yeah. Hey, what’s with all the jackets?” Louis pointed to Deacon’s pile of various jackets, curious.

“Oh, I love jackets. Can’t get enough, I’m like a jacket slut. I see you still wear band merchandise?”

The other guy proudly showed off his shirt and patches on his jacket.

“Absolutely! I’ve been really getting into these guys, you know them?”

Deacon read the writing on the shirt, the band being familiar with him.

“You serious? Ask me anything about, I don’t know...anything really and I can’t answer but ask me about My Chemical Romance and I’m a fucking novel filled with information about them. Since you like them, I want to flex with something.”

Deacon leaned down and picked up a box, opening it before pulling out a photo frame and a CD case. “You like these guys a lot, but do you have...” as each was revealed, he turned them to show Louis “...a signed photograph from the singer Gerard fucking Way?”

Louis’ mouth went agape as he stared at the photograph and the “XOXO G” signature.

“That’s fucking sick dude! Man, I want that so much! Saving up to get the Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge album. I have it on my phone, but there’s authenticity in owning a physical copy.”

“What, you mean like this one?” Deacon PROUDLY showed the same album CD case. “Signed by Gerard, Frank, Ray, Mikey and Matt back from 2004. This is my pride and joy though. Touch it and I’ll kill you so fast that I’ll break a world record. I’ll also get a criminal record, but hey ho. It’s worth more than my life to me and I’ll protect it with mine.”

Louis was just completely speechless, in absolute awe of the pieces of merchandise (which I, NinesKnives, your resident gay emo, actually own).

“That’s enough of that, otherwise you’re going to start drooling.”

His friend brought himself back to reality and he smirked and winked.

“Bet you’d love to see me wet. You gays are all the same.”

“Uh! You STRAIGHTS are all the same, thinking that we want to see guys all wet. First off, that doesn’t appeal to me and secondly, ESPECIALLY when it’s saliva. You’re gross.”

Louis laughed again playfully, hoping that he didn’t actually offend Deacon.

“And that’s why you love me, baby!”

“Pfft, you called a guy, a gay one at that, baby. Who’s the gay now, bitch boy?”

Louis pretended to be taken aback and feigned offence. He was way too good at that.

“Bitch boy? You won’t be saying that when I-“

“When you have your cock in my throat? DUDE THAT’S SO GAY, WHAT’S GOTTEN INTO YOU? Then again, I’m sure I’d still be able to speak with your dick in my mouth, don’t think it would reach past my tongue.”

Deacon’s friend was speechless yet again, they couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“No matter what I say, you’ll flip it right back to me, won’t you?”

“And that’s why you love me, baby!”

The pair spent the next few hours talking about the year between seeing each other, discussing family, old friends and a couple of tragedies that occurred during the absence from each other. Deacon didn’t show it as much, but he was very happy to have his best friend back.

“...oh, you remember that asshole Lyon? Tall guy, kinda chubby but he was always picking on the younger years?”

“Oh fuck yeah, hated that prick. You know that I had a fist fight with him and kicked his ass, don’t you? I mean, he got a good couple of punches in, I’ll give him that. What happened to him?”

Louis leaned in and lit a cigarette, blowing some smoke towards the window. He offered Deacon one, who took it gratefully. Deacon didn’t smoke much, it was more of a social thing. (Like in my other fic, I do not endorse smoking but I will implement it for detail. If you don’t smoke, please don’t start.)

“Right, so get this. After we all split, he ended up getting a lot fatter, I think his mom just provided everything any anything for him. I was doing some work in a store not too far from here and he came in, looking for chocolate, right? We didn’t have any in stock and he genuinely started getting really stressed out about it, making an absolute moron of himself in the store, just kept shouting “Why don’t you have any chocolate, do you have any idea how important that is to me? I know who you are, I demand to speak to your manager!” so I pulled out my ID card and showed him that I was the manager.”

Deacon, who was quite invested in this story, blew some smoke out while attentively listening to his buddy.

“He did NOT like that at all, I mean, I told him that he had to calm down due to his behaviour upsetting other customers in the store, as a manager would. He started opening boxes of brownies and just started SHOVELLING them in. Like, this kid was a mess. I had to call the police and I’ve never seen four police officers tackle someone with such difficulty before. He was screaming, flailing his arms, smashing shit in the store while just shouting out “I want my fucking chocolate!” and then he was yelling at the police to arrest me instead as he did “nothing wrong”” and Louis held up fingers for sarcastic quotation marks, “and apparently I was in the wrong because our delivery was running late. Literally, as they dragged him out, they brought in the delivery pallets. I thought he was going to be gone after that, but he came running, well, I say running, back in and grabbed as many bars of chocolate as he could. It didn’t matter if it was vegan, dark, white, milk or whatever and he dropped his wallet. One of the officers grabbed it as well as the wrappers from the chocolate, like Lyon was CHOWING DOWN, melted chocolate on his face, hands, shirt, on the officers and floor. Anyway, the officer grabbed all the wrappers, took out Lyon’s card and fucking paid for it RIGHT IN FRONT of him. My God, he was fuming, started screaming “why did you fucking pay for it? The manager doesn’t deserve my money!” and the officer had to fucking tase him, so while he was on the floor, the officer told him that I didn’t deserve to have to tolerate him. Then they dragged him out of there and chucked him in the back of a van, then drove off. I apologised to all of the customers and paid for their shopping as repayment for having to tolerate that. All of that over three bars of chocolate.” The pair were laughing at the story now, Louis wiping his eyes from tears.

“I feel bad for laughing because I don’t agree with weight shaming, but at the same time, he used to pick on me for my sexuality so it’s fair game.”

“Yeah, he got what he deserved. He was also charged with three counts of theft, two for aggravated assault on an officer, public disorder and four bars of chocolate. Guess which one he was most upset about?”

Deacon chuckled and flicked his cigarette butt out of the window, making a mental note to get an ashtray for the room so he wouldn’t have to litter again.

“I don’t know. I’d say the actual crimes?”

“Makes sense, right? But no, as I had to be a witness in court, he just started shouting “you fucking charged me for the chocolate, you stole my money!” and the judge basically looked at him and said “I know you’re guilty. We all know that but if you don’t silence yourself right now, you will receive an extended sentence for obstructing justice in my courtroom!” and Lyon was given 300 days community service, house arrest and a Goddamn fitness instructor as well as a therapist for anger management would be sent to his house 14 days a month. He was also given a $10,000 fine as reparation for damages caused to my store and the officers.”

Deacon sighed heavily, stunned.

“Fucking hell, that’s insane. All over some chocolate. You still the manager of the store?”

Louis shuffled a little and opened his rucksack, pulling out a phone charger and then placed it on his bed.

“Yeah, sometimes. Mainly on weekends, it’s my dads store so he hired me straight out of school. It’s cool, though because when we’re working, he doesn’t treat me as his son but he doesn’t just treat me as an employee either. You know, I could probably get you a job there if you want? I could just hire you straight up. Down to you, bro.”

Deacon thought for a moment, weighing his options.

“Can we hold that for a couple of weeks? I wanna settle down in here first and get my bearings, if that’s okay?”

Louis seemed content that he was able to get another employee, let alone his best friend.

“Of course! I’ll speak to dad about it but it shouldn’t be an issue. I wonder if he still remembers you.” He picked up his phone and started typing.

“I don’t see why not, it’s only been a year and I recognised you almost instantly.”

“Yeah that’s true, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Suddenly, a knock on the door startled the pair and the handle rattled. They watched in confusion, but heard a voice muttering from the other side. After a few seconds, the door was opened and an older woman stood in a very formal uniform came into the room. She looked at Louis, then Deacon and sniffed the air, glancing at the open window.

“Blasted self locking doors...hello, you two. You do know about the rules of smoking in here, right?” She had a stern yet intelligent aura about her, but she looked quite friendly too.

“Deacon didn’t, and I forgot to tell him. That’s my bad, it won’t happen again.”

She looked at Deacon, who smiled apologetically.

“That’s alright, thank you for apologising. Some days, it will be raining quite heavily thanks to the seasons changing, so just make sure that there is enough ventilation, you smoke by the window and get an ashtray. I would like to summon you both to the main hall for the beginning of the year as the rest of the students, like you, Deacon, arrived today. If you would like to make your way there within the next couple of minutes...”

She trailed off, smiled and nodded at the two before leaving them. Deacon grabbed his phone and put it in his pocket, moving his merchandise and jackets to a corner of his bed and Louis zipped up his rucksack, taking his phone too.

“Let’s hope that this isn’t too boring, I didn’t bring my gun so I can’t blow my brains out if I get tired.” Deacon chuckled and Louis agreed with him, before the pair made their way out, towards the hall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Good afternoon, everybody. Or should I say evening? Either way, welcome to Accolade College. I am Headmistress Dawson, but you can just call me Principal. First off, I hope that you are all well and found your dorm rooms with minimal troubles. If you get lost, you can always refer to the maps we have laid around the college in some of the corridors or you can speak to a member of staff. This induction will only take a couple of minutes, so you will all still be able to go and attend any dinner plans if you have any. You will all have further inductions by your teachers tomorrow during the first lesson, and they may occur more throughout the day, I’m just here to set some basic rules. First off, we will not tolerate violence here. We also have a high intolerance for drugs, aside from cannabis, due to the legality of the state but if you are caught smoking it, you will need to provide valid student ID, a medical card stating that you are legally allowed to consume it, and you are to NOT do it during or before class. If any students who are have medical exemption cards are caught selling or distributing in any form, you will be immediately expelled and the authorities will be informed. So keep it to yourself and be smart about it or there will be very severe consequences. The rule on firearms, well, use common sense. Don’t bring a gun here, fake or real. We do have teachers trained with firearms due to...situations, so if you bring in a toy or a real one, don’t expect it to end well for you. I know these rules are quite extreme, but in the world we live in, we need extreme rules, otherwise people won’t think about it. We do our best to be prepared for any scenario as the health and well-being of yourselves, visitors and the staff here is of our utmost importance. Now, please be sure to attend your classes to the best of your ability. We understand that students can get unwell suddenly, and even throughout the day. It happens with teachers too, none of us are immune to colds and sicknesses, so just report it please as soon as you can but if you are taking off too much time, there will be an intervention to see if we can help you. The same applies to any events causing bereavement, life is unpredictable and anything can happen so please inform us first. I do believe that is it, oh! The cafeteria will be open from 7am until 11pm, but there is also a store just down the road which is open 24 hours, and it is very good in there.” Louis seemed quite proud of this, and the Principal actually looked directly at him when she spoke about it, smiling softly. “Alright, thanks for staying here and for behaving well. Dare I say, this group I have in front of me seems to be the best I have had in years. Please don’t let me down, and I’ll take care of you. We all will. If you have questions, they are very welcome so stay seated, but if not, then I’ll be seeing you around campus! Also try to keep your rooms relatively clean, spot checks are a thing in this college. So, classes will be starting at 12pm tomorrow as we want to give you all a lazy morning and you will be given your timetables...just about now. They’re being delivered to your dormitory rooms. Thank you all, and enjoy yourselves!”

Roughly around 80% of the students got up and left, including Deacon and Louis to go back to their dorms, or to attend dinner plans just like the Prinicpal mentioned.

“Hey, what’re you in the mood for?”

Deacon looked a little confused, the question not making much sense.

“What do you mean, like, what to do?”

Louis took out his phone and started swiping, smirking.

“Nah, dumbass. I meant food. I’m ordering something but I’m indecisive, what do you want?”

Deacon thought for a moment, as he absently read over his timetable, and then he had an idea.

“Dude, I’ve had a craving for pizza for ages. Like, I want a real thick cheese and pepperoni, with extra pepperoni on it. I can’t get that out of my head, I’ve been thinking about it for like three weeks, just never able to get it before now.”

“Of course you want extra meat. Yeah sure, let me just...and then I can...yep, there we go. So, you can add as many toppings as you want so I’ve ordered you $10 worth of pepperoni and cheese. Your pizza is fucking loaded, dude. I’m going to go for the same, to be honest. That sounds Goddamn good.”

Deacon put his timetable down.

“How much do you want me to give back to you?” He took out his wallet to give money back to Louis, but his friend waved his hand, dismissing it.

“Dude, it’s like $60. Don’t worry about it.”

The price caught Deacon off guard.

“Bro, THAT much for two pizzas? I know you got the extra toppings but still...”

“Oh I also got a couple of drinks and garlic mushrooms. You like those, don’t you? I can’t remember.”

Deacon nodded, smiling.

“Thank you. I don’t mind paying,” he offered again. Louis, again, declined it and they sat there talking for a while as they waited for the food to arrive. Once it turned up, they ate and reminisced about school, or days that they hung out after school. Louis told a few more stories about working at the store, and Deacon talked about concerts that he had seen. They seemed like polar opposites, but their friendship was closer than anything, due to everything that they had helped each other through. After a while, they decided that going to bed would be a good idea so they folded up the pizza boxes after putting the remaining food on a plate, leaving it in the oven in the kitchen, ready to be heated up tomorrow. Deacon and Louis stripped down to their underwear and climbed into their own beds. Deacon appreciated that Louis didn’t care about his sexuality, that was one of their best traits in their friendship. They spent a little longer talking about anything they could think of, but they stopped when Louis fell asleep halfway through a sentence. Deacon smiled to himself and closed his eyes, letting himself drift away into a peaceful slumber, similar to his friend as he thought about what the next day would hold.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://discord.gg/Xxs5KSW

To say that Deacon slept well was an understatement. He thought that since it was a new environment, he would find the first few nights difficult but, waking up feeling more refreshed for the first time in weeks, even months, he found that he slept extremely well. Maybe it was eating almost an entire 18” pizza or maybe it was knowing that his best friend was next to him, so he wasn’t alone and even better, he was with someone he trusted, let alone knew. He sat up in his bed and yawned, letting out a rather loud one as he stretched.

“Yo Deek, that you? I was wondering when your lazy ass would be getting out of bed.” Deacon looked around for a clock to see the time but couldn’t find one so he grabbed his phone and tried unlocking it, cursing himself for not charging it the night before.

“What time is it? Surely it can’t be too late, right?”

Louis emerged out of the bathroom in a cloud of steam, his hair drooped in wet spikes as it fell just above his nose before he brushed it out of the way. He had a towel around his waist, thankfully and Deacon did his best to maintain eye contact.

“Uh, it is...” he checked his phone, “9:43.”

Deacon sighed, a little relieved. He had more time to relax before he had to go to class. Louis walked into the room and sat on his bed, lighting a cigarette.

“Why did you call me a lazy ass? When did you get up?”

Using another towel, Louis started going ham on his hair, drying it in the process while being mindful to not burn the towel with his cigarette.

“I don’t know, about fifteen minutes ago? Yeah, give or take a couple. You know, whenever we’ve slept in the same room, you’ve never woken up before me. Not once.”

Deacon chuckled softly. “You kept count?”

“Only happened uh, let me think...one hundred percent of the time.” He let off a devilish smirk and Deacon looked out of the window for the first time, becoming a little disappointed.

“Huh, Dawson wasn’t kidding about the weather being shitty. It’s really coming down.”

“Yeah, I know. It actually woke me up. I wanted to go back to sleep but I couldn’t, so I decided to go for a shower. Uh, close your eyes for a sec?”

Wanting to give his friend privacy, Deacon flopped face down onto his bed. He had his curiosities, but he valued his friend so much more. Louis dropped the towel and started rifling through his drawer, grabbing a blue pair of underwear and some black socks. He made himself decent, and then looked over to Deacon, who hadn’t moved once. He appreciated that.

“Alright dude, I’m decent now. You don’t have to face plant the bed, you could have just closed your eyes.”

Deek lifted his head up, slowly looking over to Louis as he wanted to make sure he didn’t see anything untoward. “I know that, I just don’t wanna risk it, you know? I’d rather not embarrass you like that.”

Louis chucked as he pulled a shirt over his head. “Aw, that’s cute. Struggling to resist the temptation must be really difficult, I mean, look at me.”

Deacon rolled his legs out of bed and sat up properly, sighing.

“You just CANNOT help yourself, can you? You sure that you’re straight? Also close your eyes please, I don’t want you looking at this sexy hunk of a man.”

“If I want to see that, I’d look in the mirror.” Louis did close his eyes though, respecting his friends privacy. Deacon quickly changed his underwear and discarded his old pair into a washing basket at the foot of his bed.

“Alright, I’m good now.” Deacon donned a pair of black jeans and a band shirt, and so did Louis. Louis checked the time for them both and announced that it was only just about 10am.

“Dude, we still have two hours before classes,” he said a little exasperated. “What are you studying here, anyway?”

Deacon said “I’m doing performing arts, knowing how you like to be so extra about everything, I’m guessing you’re here to do the same.”

It wasn’t a question but more of a statement, which Louis happily nodded his head in agreement to.

“Hell yeah, bro! Pass me your timetable, I wanna compare them.” Deacon passed his paper over to his friend, who studied them intently for a few moments before passing one of them back.

“We’re in the same class, but I’ve got Fridays off. Lucky you.”

Deacon checked his own. “Yeah, lucky you. That’ll give you plenty of time to change everything about yourself,” he said playfully.

“What’s wrong with me? Don’t like my personality, or is it because I’m a lot more sexier than you?”

Laughing, Deacon flipped his middle finger up at Louis.

“Nah, you’re too straight for me. I’m just kidding, dude. I wonder why you aren’t in the class.”

“Oh well, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Suddenly, Louis’ phone started vibrating and he answered the call. Deacon watched as his friend got up and grabbed his jacket.

“...yeah I’m on my way now. Deek, I’ll catch you soon...where do you want...”

He seemed distressed and left before Deacon could ask what was wrong.

“Uh...yeah, I’ll see you later.”

Deacon decided on reheating the pizza for a snack before class and spent some time organising his belongings before he needed to leave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Good morning, everybody. My name is Professor Kennedy and I will be your lecturer for the duration of this course.” Kennedy stood tall, light blonde hair parting just above his face, his glasses hooked onto his shirt. Deacon glanced around the classroom and saw a few empty chairs. “Alright, let’s get registration out of the way and then we can go over what we’ll be doing...” he typed and clicked on the laptop “Do we have a Chloe?”

“Here, sir.”

“Cool...Jamie?”

“Over here.”

“Okay, Andrea?”

“Present.”

“Andrew?”

“Over here, sir.

“Jake?”

“Yup.”

“Kiba?”

“Mmhm.”

“Samantha?”

“Just Sam, but I’m here.”

“Noted. Louis?”

...

“Louis? Are you here?”

Deacon glanced around the classroom, looking for his best friend before he spoke.

“I’m his roommate, something important came up, don’t know what but he said that he’d be back soon. I can text him if you want?”

Professor Kennedy shook his head.

“No, it’s okay. What’s your name?”

“My name is Deacon, sir.”

Kennedy looked up at Deacon for a moment, giving him a mixed expression before marking something down.

“Okay, thank you Deacon. Uh, Levi?”

“What do you want?” The student identified as Levi crossed his arms and glared at another student next to him, who Deacon believed to be Chloe.

“It’s...the register, Levi? Have you been paying attention?”

Levi scoffed and looked out the window. “No.”

Kennedy put his glasses on and sighed.

“Well, at least you’re honest. Okay, that’s everyone, it seems. Only missing Louis.” He typed a few more words onto the laptop before closing it down, kicking his feet up onto the desk. “Alright guys, I want to get one thing clear. I’m gonna be your best friend during this course as well as your lecturer. I’m not strict, I like to let my students express their creativity and I urge you to all find your own ways on doing that, however; I have a zero tolerance for violence of any kind. I know lots of people say that but if I see you taking “banter” too far, then you’re out of this course. I don’t care for that shit. Another thing, you guys can do whatever you want to do within reason, obviously as long as you complete your work to the best of your ability. All I can ask from you guys is your best, because I don’t want you to fail. I want to see you all thrive, not flounder. I was assigned some tasks to give you today, but we can worry about that later. Right now, I would like you all to get into groups of...hm...twos. Louis can introduce himself to everyone when he arrives. One of you will need to join a two. Just take the opportunity to get to know one another and I want to hear one comment about the other. Usually, I’d like to let my students pick the other but I’ve seen people getting isolated due to nobody meeting them in the beginning, and then rumours spread and...it’s just not worth it. Sam, you’re with Jake. Andrew, you’re with Chloe. Deacon, you’re with Levi. Andrea, you’re with Jamie. Louis isn’t here so...Kiba, you can go with whoever you want. Alright, swap chairs everybody and go sit in your assigned pairs. You have five minutes and remember, I only want to hear one thing about each other. You can use the rest of the time to just chat and make aquaintances...let’s go!” The sounds of scraping chairs and footsteps filled the room, followed by name asking questions. Deacon moved over to Levi, who watched him intently.

“Deacon, right?”

Deacon sat down at a desk next to his classmate...using the word “mate” lightly.

“Yeah, I-“

“Don’t care. You know mine. We have five minutes, so tell me something about yourself.”

His abruptly rude attitude caught Deacon off guard, and he tried to think of something to say that wouldn’t potentially be used against him.

“I...uh...”

“Have a speech impediment? Yeah I noticed. Fucking...tell me anything. What’s your favourite band?”

“My Chemical Romance.”

“See? That wasn’t so hard now, was it? Baby’s first words. I don’t like them, so use that in a few minutes. I’m going to do some art, I’d appreciate it if you...you know...didn’t watch me.” Levi pulled a sketchbook out of his rucksack and glared at Deacon.

“But...that’s not what we’re meant to be doing. We’re working in the same room for the next year at least and surely it would be good t-“

“Oh my God, you’re still talking? Ugh. What did you say, I didn’t care enough to listen the first time?”

Deacon felt a little shocked by Levi’s response, but he shook his head.

“I said that we should get to know each other better as we’re classmates.”

Levi kept his sketchbook closed, although he idly played with his pencil.

“Fine. What do you want to know?”

“Uh, what do you like to do for fun?”

Without skipping a beat, Levi dropped his response, “I like watching people squirm under uncomfortable circumstances.”

Deacon blinked, unsure of what to say.

“I draw, dumb ass. Why do you think I have a sketchbook here, for hitting other students?” He paused and glanced out the window, “That’s not a bad idea actually. Alright, indulge me. What do you like doing? You look like you cry in the shower if you smudge your eyeliner.”

“...I don’t wear eyeliner? And I like reading and writing mainly, I enjoy singing an-“

“Okay okay, I didn’t ask for your life story. So you think you have talent, alright. Your turn to ask something.”

“Um...you have any brothers or sisters?”

“No, I don’t. You?”

“Nope, looks like we’re both an only child. You have any pets?”

“I’ve got a cat. I suppose I’m meant to ask you the same again?”

“That, or whatever you can think of.”

Levi crossed his legs, putting one of his boots on the chair next to him.

“You look like the type of guy who lets everyone walk all over him. What I mean by that is, you’re not very assertive, am I correct?”

What kind of line was this questioning?

“I...don’t see how that’s important?”

“Answer the fucking question, dude.”

“I don’t have to answer shit if I don’t like it.”

“I asked you. It’s polite to answer me.”

“It’s NOT polite to make irrelevant assumptions about my personality!” Deacon snapped at him, attracting the attention of the class briefly. Levi uncrossed his leg, bringing his foot to the floor with a thud.

“Look at you, learning already. Maybe you’re not as much of a pushover that I thought you were.”

Unknowing how to respond to that, Deacon checked his phone to see if Louis had messaged him at all. Nothing.

“Alright, everyone,” Kennedy said with a clap, “let’s see what you’ve all got.” Everyone took turns saying something that they discovered about the other person in the group, ranging from favourite food to movies. Deacon didn’t pay much attention until Kennedy turned to him and Levi.

“What about you two?”

Levi cleared his throat. “Deacon’s a little emo bitch.”

“And Levi’s an asshole. He also has a cat.”

Kennedy stared at the two for a second, not knowing what to say.

“I don’t know if you guys hate each other or what...but you don’t seem to be killing each other, so I’ll take it. Anyway, that was the icebreaker for us all, now it’s my turn to share something. Hm...what though?”

Sam raised her hand and spoke, “What’s your first name? You know all of ours, and we’re not going to disrespect you by calling you that instead of Professor or something.”

Kennedy thought about it for a moment before nodding, a small smile creeping onto his face.

“Alright guys. Now, this is a total coincidence, I promise but my first name is John.”

Levi chuckled.

“John Kennedy, as in JFK? You serious? What’s next, your middle name is Fitzgerald? No...I bet it’s Frank.”

This earned Levi a few quiet laughs from the other classmates, for some reason. He watched Kennedy’s face turn into a deadpan expression, and he widened his eyes.

“No...are you fuckin’ serious?! Is it Frank?!”

“Yeah, uh...you got me. Johnathan Frank Kennedy. Not the President, though. Do you have anything else to say before I continue with class, Levi? You seem to enjoy talking.”

The student lifted his boot back onto the chair next to him, flicking open his book. “Nah I’m okay, JFK.” One of the other students stifled a laugh behind him and he met it with a death glare.

“Fuck you laughing at?”

The other student said nothing and looked out of the window, breaking eye contact with Levi. Deacon watched him and came to the conclusion that Levi is all bark with minimal bite. Kennedy sighed and turned towards his desk before sitting down.

“Look, we’re all in here for the year. Let’s at least try to get along, huh? I don’t want to be pulling you all off each other. If nobody else has anything to say, I want to start talking about...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After class had finished and everyone split their own ways, Deacon went back to his room, wondering if Louis was there. He unlocked the door and pushed it open, seeing his friend sat on his bed. Deacon moved to his own, putting his rucksack on the floor.

“Hey Deek...sorry I didn’t come into class today. I forgot that I had a meeting earlier.”

“Everything okay?”

Louis managed a small smile, nodding. “Oh yeah, everything’s alright. What’s everyone in class like?”

“Oh, okay so, get this; our teacher’s name is John Frank Kennedy, or JFK, so that in itself is wild. There’s ten of us altogether; me, you, Samantha but she prefers Sam, Andrea, Andrew, Jake, Levi, Chloe, Jamie and Kiba. It’s not a bad bunch, although Levi is a bit strange.”

“JFK? Well, that’s one hell of a coincidence. And what do you mean, strange? Like you’d let him fuck, kind of strange?” He couldn’t help himself and laughed to himself.

“No, not like that. You’ll find out tomorrow, he’s...I don’t know how to describe him other than strange. I don’t think he’s gay anyway, let alone my type.”

They spent a few hours talking about Deacon’s first day, their classmates and just anything and everything, much like the previous night.

“Hey...Deek? I think I’m going to get some rest. Today’s been a long one for me.” At that moment, Deacon yawned, confirming that it would be good for them to both sleep.

“Yeah that’s alright,” they undressed and got into their beds, Louis turning the light off before getting under his blankets, “you know that you can talk to me about anything, right?”

Deacon closed his eyes and steadied his breathing, an exercise he learned a few years ago to help him sleep.

“Yeah...I know, Deek. I appreciate it bro. Good night, dude.”

“Night, dude.”

Even though he utilised his exercise in the perfect environment, Deacon struggled to sleep. Something felt wrong...but he just couldn’t figure out what.


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://discord.gg/Xxs5KSW

Once again, the alarm clock tears Deacon away from his slumber, not that it really mattered. He spent most of the night staring out the window, just watching the moon slowly appear and disappear through the frame.

“Mmgh...shutafukinthinup...”

Yawning and stretching, Deacon looked at Louis through blurry eyes. “What was that?”

“I said shut that fucking thing up, dude. Why’s it gotta be so damn loud?”

He looked over to the alarm clock, pressing the snooze button twice to turn it off.

“Someone’s woken up in a bad mood,” Deacon teased. His remark was swiftly met with a pillow to the face.

“Leave me alone, Deek.”

Deacon looked at him questioningly. He didn’t sound annoyed, but sad. Even though he just woke up, his voice sounded off and Louis simply rolled over to face the wall.

“Bro, we have class in a little while. Come on, you missed yesterday. You need to get up and attend today.”

“I don’t have to do shit, don’t tell me what to do.”

“Sorry.”

Nothing more was said, Louis stayed facing the wall and Deacon got up quietly, grabbing his phone while heading to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. He turned the machine on and shivered, the cold air assaulting his almost bare body. After a few minutes, he had his warm beverage as well as one for Louis so he went back into the bedroom, setting a mug down on his friends desk.

“Louis? There’s some coffee by your books if you want it. I’m going to get ready and then I’m gonna get some breakfast, let me know if you need anything. I’ll see you in...uh, I’ll see you later on.”

Deacon spent about an hour showering and drinking his coffee while browsing on his phone, noting the time. He got some clean clothes on and shoved his wallet into his pocket as well as his phone before leaving the dorm room. As he closed the door, he leaned up against it for a moment to let another student pass. While he waited, he could have swore that he heard Louis say...sorry?

“Hey, uh, Deacon, right?” He looked up from his coffee and pancakes to see a girl sitting down across from him, rather clumsily. Her water bottle was sent a few feet down the table, books cluttering onto the floor and she seemed quite embarrassed. Deacon bent down under the table and grabbed one of them before giving it back, smiling lightly.

“Yeah, I’m Deacon. Um, I’m sorry but I don’t know your name...?”

“Thank you, and it’s Chloe. We’re in the same class, we have Kennedy?” She brushed some blue highlighted hair out of her face and Deacon could admit that it went very well with the blonde, not that he knew anything about hair dye.

“Oh right, I’m sorry, Chloe.” He made a mental note to remember. She brushed it off like it meant nothing.

“Oh it’s fine, nobody really remembers. Oh, um, sorry, I didn’t ask. Is it okay if I sit here?”

Deacon looked around himself at the empty bench next to him and around him. He wanted to be away from people, and it didn’t look like anyone was going to bother him...until now. She looked nervous. He sipped his coffee, thinking.

“Well, you’re already here, aren’t you? No offence, but you don’t know me. Why do you want to sit next to me?”

Thankfully, she didn’t take any offence to his statement and question. She glanced around, increasingly nervous before settling again.

“I’m not really having the best time here already with others. My anxiety is spiking and you didn’t seem mean yesterday, so I thought that I’d maybe come over here, if you’re okay with having me around?”

“Wait, you’re already being bullied? By who?” She shook her head and organised her books, not wanting to say. Deacon noticed that she didn’t have anything to eat, she seemed preoccupied with not being seen. “Hey. Eat something, keep your head down and they most likely won’t even see you.” He slid his tray of pancakes over to Chloe, who stared at him wide eyed.

“But...what about you? I can’t just take your food, Deacon. Plus, people say that I’m fat enough...”

He looked at her jacket and saw a My Chemical Romance patch just below her left shoulder and he smiled.

“Us Killjoys have to stick together and the only weight that matters is the weight of your heart from how much kindness you hold in it.”

This got a smile out of Chloe, who gratefully accepted the tray. Initially, she had tried splitting the amount of pancakes to give half back but Deacon refused.

“Why...why are you being so nice to me?” She took a small bite and looked at him for a moment before breaking eye contact. She seemed like she suffered with mental health and bullying quite a lot in her life.

“There’s so much negativity in the world right now, what’s the point of adding to it? Plus, you haven’t hurt me so I have no reason to dislike you.”

Chloe smiled sweetly, her mood climbing.

“Thank you, Deacon. I don’t want to be rude, but do you think we could go to class together? You don’t have to hang out with me anymore, I’m sure you’ll get tired of that but I just don’t want to go by myself.” She motioned towards her body, still hiding out of view from everyone else.

“Tell you what, unlock your phone and pass it here. You can watch what I’m doing, just trust me?”

Hesitantly, she gave Deacon her unlocked phone and he typed in some details before giving it back. She couldn’t see what he did to it. Before she could figure out what he did, she received a text.

Deacon: “Your body is beautiful and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise 💚.”

Chloe stared at the screen for a moment and then wiped her eyes, breathing shakily.

“Thanks...I needed that...”

“Well well, what do we have here? She come over to suck up your breakfast too?”

Deacon snapped round to find himself face to crotch with a few jocks, who seemed familiar. He recognised them as his classmates...fucking hell. He looked back at Chloe, who sunk into herself. She’s getting this from her own classmates?

“What’s your problem with her? And can you get your dick out of my face?”

The main jock, who Deacon noted to be ‘Asshole One’ laughed.

“Why, you afraid that you’ll get turned on?”

“That was one of the stupidest comebacks I’ve ever heard, if anything it just makes you seem gay. You don’t have a problem waving your dick in front of another dude, and I think this is also sexual harassment so back the fuck off unless you want a lawsuit. Also no, I want it out of my face because if it stays there for another five seconds, I’m going to bite it off.”

Still laughing, Asshole One moved back a little, cautiously.

“Yeah? You’re going to try taking me on? Look at me, I’m a fucking beast and you’re just a little bitch.” He prodded Deacon’s chest, his friends enjoying the show. Chloe got afraid and upset so she bolted, not that it mattered to Deacon. He didn’t mind.

“That may be true, but it doesn’t mean I can’t fuck you up. Maybe not physically, but I can torment you. All I need is to see your face, which you’ve been kind enough to oblige. Beat me up or not, I don’t care. It’s not going to change what’s coming to you.”

Asshole B knocked Deacon’s coffee over the table, soaking his...Chloe’s pancakes before Asshole A lifted Deacon off the bench by the collar. He was considerably stronger than he looked.

“You going to threaten me and do nothing about it, huh? That’s a shame, I like it when they fight. Makes it more enj-OOF!”

Within a split second, Deacon was dropped back onto the bench, a blur appeared and completely and utterly floored Asshole A, sending him sprawling. Two seconds later, Asshole B is on the floor as well and Asshole C backed up, not wanting any of this. Deacon looked at who his saviour was, blinking. They were knelt down onto Asshole A, pressing their knee into their shoulder while holding their arm behind their back.

“Hey get off me man, that fucking hurts!”

“If I ever see you even fucking THINK about CONSIDERING MAYBE SPEAKING to these two again, I’m going to rip your arm off a lot like this,” they pushed up more, causing the jock to shout out in pain and writhe “and then I’m going to shove it so far down your throat that I can ram my hand up your ass and pull your arm out whole. Then, I’m going to take my knife here and slice you from asshole to mouth, not that I can tell the difference on you, then empty your organs and ship them to your family piece by piece until they have a LEGO set of your own fucking mutilated body. I hate mess, so I’ll have to drain your blood first. Ever had a Colombian Necktie? No? Would you fucking like one?!”

The guy on the floor was borderline in tears now, his arm almost snapped.

“H-hey, my arm man! Come on, I didn’t mean anything, I was just having fun! Let me go, come on!”

“Oh, you were having fun?! How’s this for fun, you self obsessed, pretentious over-egomaniacal prick?!” They pushed up just a little more until a small crunch was audible, getting a couple of “Ooh”‘s from the audience that gathered, with a stifled scream from the jock.

Deacon saw a shine of blue and looked up to see Chloe, rubbing her neck shyly as she watched the carnage unfold.

“You broke my fucking arm! Dude, you’re going to pay for that! What’s your name, I’m going to fucking kill you?!” The guy, who was facing away from Deacon stood up before jumping onto the jock’s back and arm, really fucking this dude up.

“Name’s Levi and if you come for me, the police will need more than five body bags to clean your body parts up.” Levi let the jock get up before kicking him in the back again, sending Asshole A back to the floor. He put his arms out to stop himself from hitting his face, but he must have forgot that his arm was injured because an unholy crunch was let out, making a student somewhere in the room instantly vomit. The jock held his arm and wailed while being escorted out by his friends, who were lucky to not receive an ass beating like that. Levi jumped up onto the table and stomped his foot, getting everyone’s attention. “If ANYONE rats out what happened, I’ll do the same to you. Also, you must have a shitty justice system internally because those jocks got exactly what they deserved. Chloe, Deacon, stay away from that lot.” Before anyone could say anything else, Levi jumped off the table and walked outside, taking a cigarette out of his pocket to the sound of applause.

“Holy shit...you got Levi to come and help?”

Chloe smiled meekly, twirling her foot nervously.

“He was the only one I could think of. I’m sorry about that, Deacon. I didn’t know that they’d target you as well.”

Deacon brushed himself off and stood up, looking at the blood on the floor.

“No no it’s okay, it’s not your fault. It doesn’t look like they’re going to bother you anymore. Fucking hell...Levi is one scary guy. Come on, let’s get to class.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Good morning everybody. Now, before we start, it’s come to my attention that there was an altercation between a few students. Everybody, I want you to talk between yourselves until I’m back. Levi, come with me.”

Huffing loudly, Levi kicked his boots off the table and got up, following Kennedy out of the room. Chloe moved closer to Deacon and Louis, who were chatting quietly. The classroom was a lot fuller today, it looked like it doubled in size.

“Oh hey Chlo, you alright?”

“Chlo?” Louis looked confused.

“Her name’s Chloe, and she’s awesome. What’s up?”

A small smile crept onto her face as she brought her water bottle over from the table behind her.

“Yeah...just wanted to say thanks for earlier. I don’t know what would have happened if you weren’t there.”

“Wait, what? I’ve missed something.”

“Deacon helped me with some bullies earlier, and so did Levi.”

Louis looked at her, shocked. Then to Deacon. Then back to Chloe.

“You...you got in a fight?”

Deacon sighed, shaking his head.

“No, it wasn’t anything like that. To be honest, I was about to have my ass beat until Levi showed up.”

“What?! Tell me everything!” Louis and Chloe started talking about the events from earlier while Deacon half paid attention, looking out of the window. He watched a police car and an ambulance pull in through the gates. Well, shit. Deacon dived under the table and opened Levi’s rucksack, rummaging around until he found what he was looking for. He pulled his own rucksack over and transferred a few items into his own, before closing his classmates bag and then his own. Shortly after, Kennedy came back into the room alone.

“Alright, that’s all sorted now. Where was I...oh right. I’ve set some work for a “performance” between you all. You can get into your own collective groups or pairs, or even alone but I want to see what you can do. I’m going to be taking students out one by one to talk to over this week so I can figure out where your abilities lie and what would be best for you. I know it sounds really easy right now, and it is but eventually, it’s going to get difficult and you may need to rely on your classmates to help you get through this course. I don’t want cheating, but I trust you all to help each other. Alright class, let’s get to it.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So what do you think you’re going to do for the assignment?” Louis flopped onto his bed, sighing while Deacon closed the door, chucking his phone onto his bed before joining it.

“I don’t know, dude. I mean, we can either use a scene from something that exists or we can come up with something completely new so that’s alright, I guess.”

“Yeah, that’s true. So it’s me, you and Chloe in our group. Shit, we can’t contact her.”

Deacon looked at his phone, then to Louis.

“That’s not true, I’ve got her number.”

Louis sat up, smirking. “Oh, shit! You got yourself a girlfriend! I mean, she’s a little chunky for my taste but-“

“Hey, she doesn’t need more shit about her body. She’s not my girlfriend either, and I’m sure that you aren’t her taste either. A bear would be more appropriate for you.”

“Haha, a bear? What, you mean like the hairy guys or like, an actual bear?”

“A real bear.” Deacon scrolled through a shopping app, browsing for some food.

“Yeah, right. Hey, what happened to Levi?”

Deacon glanced at his friend, then back to his phone. He thought of his rucksack and then pushed it out of his mind. “I guess he got in trouble. I saw some police turn up, but he broke someone’s arm. Maybe the school will see that he was defending me and Chloe.”

“Probably not dude, I don’t think he’s in for a good time. Shit, two days in and he’s already broken someone’s arm. Where the hell did this kid come from?”

“No idea. Hey, you want noodles?”

“He’s fuckin’ built different, I swear. Oh, sure. Get me the chicken ones, you’re welcome to the spicy ones. Oh, get me a few of the...uh...fuck, what’s it called?...uh those, fuckin’...CUPCAKES, that’s it!”

“You want cupcakes? Little fairy wings, strawberry frosting?”

Deacon laughed, but Louis didn’t. He was serious about the cupcakes.

“Oh, sure. Well, I’m going to be driving home on Saturday to see my folk. I’m not homesick or anything, it’s my little sisters’ birthday so we’re going to be taking her out somewhere. I think we’re going to the aquarium?”

“Alright cool, I’ll grab some of those. You want anything else? I’ve got beer, chips, snacks like that, got some frozen stuff that we can cook, got some fruit as well.”

Louis thought to himself for a moment, reading on his own phone. “Get like, a crate of soda. Gotta say, I’m glad that there’s an easy beginning to this course. It’s nice that they’re not just throwing us in the deep end straight away.”

“That’s true, I think the first few weeks are gonna be pretty damn relaxed. Okay, it’ll be arriving tomorrow.”

A message flicked up onto Deacon’s screen. It wasn’t a big one, just a few words but it meant a lot nonetheless.

Chloe: Thanks for being my friend.

Deacon: You don’t have to thank me for that.

Chloe: Yes I do, and I want to. I’ll see you tomorrow, Deek!

Deacon: Goodnight, Chlo!

He put his phone down, sighing and then his stomach rumbled, rather loudly.

“Fiiiiiine, I’ll get the pizza. You got the groceries. Same again?”

Deacon smiled, nodding. “Same again.”


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://discord.gg/Xxs5KSW

“Look, I’m just not sure if this is a good idea,” said Louis, brandishing a knife. Deacon pushed the clip into the gun and cocked it, looking down the sight.

“I think it’s a brilliant idea. In and out, nobody needs to get hurt.”

Louis looked at Deacon, agitated and nervous. “But what if someone does get hurt?! We’re going to get fucked for armed robbery, attempted murder AT BEST and we’re going to end up behind bars.”

“We’re going to be fine. We have gloves, masks, Chloe’s going to place an electronic jammer and remotely open all the ATM’s.” Deacon threw a handgun at Louis, who caught it shakily. “You can get those while I handle the cashier and the civilians. Don’t let your face get seen, don’t leave any evidence and PLEASE FOR FUCKS SAKE, don’t kill anyone. Just wound them at best, nothing life threatening either.”

I’m just...uh, fuck. Line!” He threw the gun down in defeat, clearly exasperated. It landed with a metallic thud.

“Hey come on, you’ve got this. It’s alright if you don’t get everything right away, I’m sure we’re all going to screw up our lines or something else one way or another. If it’s any consolation, just be glad that we’re not actually about to go and rob a bank.”

Chloe emerged into the room, holding three takeaway coffee cups. “How’s it going?”

“Fucking shit.”

“Ignore him. It’s going alright, just working out a few bumps as we go along.” Chloe picked up the gun that was tossed on the floor and wiped it, hoping that it wasn’t scratched.

“Can you please be careful with these? I don’t want them getting damaged, or they might misfire.” Both males snapped their heads around to look at Chloe, who was confused by their reactions. “What?”

“You...um, are these real guns?”

“Well, yeah. You don’t go into a bank robbery with a fake gun.”

Louis looked incredulous. “You also don’t film a fake heist with REAL guns!”

She started laughing and she threw the gun down too, showing that there’s no harm. It didn’t stop the pair from flinching...or ducking behind a flipped table.

“They’re not real, don’t worry! Where would someone my age even get access to multiple firearms, especially ones with a high caliber like these? I mean, come on, guys.”

A sigh of relief echoed through the room, or maybe it was because they both sighed at almost the same time. They took their coffee and drank some.

“Oh, that’s nice. Thank you for that. Okay, so. We’re getting ready to go into the bank, our characters talk about it and I convince you to go with me. Chloe, your part will be coming in soon where the focus will turn to you, our skilled hacker. Thought of a name to use yet?”

She smiled widely. “Mmhm! Nightwing!”

“Ohh, that’s good. I like that. Alright, so Nightwing will cut the power for ten seconds, me and you will burst in with a couple of flash bangs, then the moment we’re in, Nightwing will cut off all communications, put a loop onto the cameras so they don’t notice anything suspicious and the bank will be shut down while we’re inside. After, we get as much as we can carry, give some to the civilians for penance as to making them victims in a bank heist and then we leave. We’ll need someone to drive-“

“-the getaway car? All good heists need a driver.”

Everyone turned around to see a dark haired guy, leaning against the doorway.

“Levi? You’re joining us?” He moved in closer, holding his own drink. Whatever it was, nobody aside from him knew.

“Yeah. You got an issue with that?”

Deacon held his hands up innocently.

“No, no problems here. How did yesterday go, we saw police?”

Levi moved in close and took Deacon’s coffee, drinking some.

“That’s good coffee. It was fine, they searched my bag for my knife but it wasn’t in there. Wherever that is, I don’t know but I’m glad that it was taken. Also, that jock didn’t want to press charges because he didn’t want to legally admit that he was being physically violent with other students first, so I got a detention. Oh, you’ve got a detention too, JFK wanted me to tell you that. You were also threatening him apparently so...” he shrugged and drank some more of Deacon’s coffee, ignoring his own drink.

“I never got to say thanks for that, by the way.” Deacon took his coffee cup away, which Levi took back so he gave up.

“Don’t stress it. I’m sure if you weren’t so weak, you would have defended yourself.”

“Oh, I was wondering when the insults were coming.”

Levi took the lid off Deacon’s cup, pouring his own drink in. Deacon watched him take a sip of it to prove that it wasn’t poisoned or anything.

“The insults are always coming, it’s all about timing. Anyway, thanks for letting me join your group.” Deacon sipped his coffee, trying to taste what Levi put in it. “Don’t be scared, it’s just whiskey. You’re not...allergic, are you? Don’t want a repeat.”

“No, no, I’m not allergic *ahem* that’s got a kick. Uhm, did Kennedy assign you to us?”

Levi shook his head, grabbing a spare script that Chloe had printed out. “No, I didn’t realise that it was down to him, considering that he said we can work in our own groups...that weren’t preassigned.” He wasn’t wrong.

“Yeah, that’s fair enough. Don’t think I actually properly met you, name’s Louis.” Deacon’s friend held out a hand and Levi just stared at him.

“Levi.”

The atmosphere seemed tense for a little while, but the group started working together soon after. Deacon observed that Chloe was considerably good with technological stuff, Levi was a pretty good actor and so was Louis, as long as he could remember his lines.

“Chloe, you going to be eating in here with me?” Deacon offered, taking out his own lunch. Louis did the same, as he had nowhere else to be. She grabbed her bag and smiled softly.

“If that’s okay with you?”

“Of course it is, come on. Levi, you joining?”

He looked at the three and scoffed.

“Nah, I’m good, thanks.”

Chloe looked at her food and then at Levi.

“You don’t have anything to eat, do you?” He took offence to this.

“What? Of course I do, why do you think that I don’t?” Deacon glanced at the dark haired teenager, picking up a sandwich.

“Then where is it?”

Silence fell onto the room as they all looked at Levi, who glared back. However, he could only keep it going for so long and gave in, sighing.

“Fine, I’ll sit with you.”

Louis sat next to Chloe, leaving an empty seat for Levi next to Deacon. He sat down and took out his flask of whiskey, drinking some and putting it on the table before reading the script over. Discretely, Deacon took his other sandwich and slid it across, underneath the script that Levi was holding. He didn’t notice. Louis and Chloe saw the gesture, so Chloe took out a chocolate bar and an apple, rolling them over to Levi and Louis gave him a bottle of water as well as a bag of chips. He still hadn’t noticed, seemingly to be drawn into the script.

“I’ve got a few adjustments here to make, and I think that...what? Why are you guys looking at me like that?” He moved the script and his hand brushed against the chips, so he looked down. “Uh, what’s this about?”

“We wanted to make sure that you had something to eat today. Acting can be tough on an empty stomach.”

Louis chipped in, “Yeah, not to mention drinking. Should always eat before drinking.”

“I’m not a fucking charity case, you know.”

Deacon smiled at him before taking a bite of his own food. “We know.”

Hesitantly, Levi moved his hand to the sandwich and lifted it up. He checked inside it, maybe out of paranoia or whatever reason he had, and then he took a bite. Then another. He caught everyone watching him, smiling.

“...whatever...”

“It was Deacon’s idea, I’d say it was a good one. Anyway, you were saying that you had some adjustments to the script?” Chloe offered, trying to keep the conversation going.

He took another bite before picking up the paper. “Yeah, it’s very unrealistic to just go in flash banging people. They’ll be disoriented as well as scared, and with guns around...that’s not a good mix. I’m thinking that the three of us would go in, one for crowd control, two to grab the cash while Chloe-“

“Nightwing.” Louis corrected gently.

“Nightwing? That’s sick. Okay, so Nightwing will control outside measurements such as CCTV, radio frequencies and all that stuff...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well, that wasn’t bad at all. I think we can nail this.”

“You’ve changed a lot of the script, Levi.”

“And? It’s good, right? If you guys had objections then you could have just said so.”

Their expressions as well as silence spoke for them, and Levi bit his lip.

“Oh, um, okay. That’s fair enough. Well, for future references...”

Deacon smiled. “That mean you’ll be working with us more often?”

“Wait, we’re a group? I didn’t think you guys could tolerate me that much.”

“Oh, hush Chloe, you know we want you around! Levi, what’ll it be?”

He finished off his sandwich with a sip of water and looked at the three, sighing. Everyone was hopeful for him to join them as a permanent group as they worked well together.

“Fine.” Even though he didn’t show it, he appreciated the offer to join, as well as the friendship.

The four ate and talked for the next hour, enjoying each other’s company. Levi didn’t show it but everyone knew that everybody was enjoying themselves. Deacon thought about the items in his bag that didn’t belong to him, but he thought that he’d hold onto it for now and give it to Levi later.

“Oh guys, by the way,” Louis swallowed his last bite of food, “Deek here ordered a lot of beer so if you two want to come by our dorm later, we can hang out then, get drunk and vibe?”

“Um, hang out?” Both Chloe and Levi stared at each other for a moment after speaking in unison, and Deacon felt his heart sink.

“Neither of you have been invited to hang out before?” The two shook their heads. “It’s awesome, we can get some food, which I believe is being delivered later on, play some music, we can rehearse if we want, although I’m not sure how that’ll go, but it’s completely down to you guys whether you want to join us or not.”

Deacon nodded, “Yeah it’s totally fine if you guys wanna come over. I mean, we won’t be doing much else.”

“I’d love to, if that’s okay, of course.”

“I’ll probably pass, I think I’m busy later. Maybe another time.”

Deacon nodded again, a little disappointed.

“That’s alright. Okay, so Chloe, be at ours for around 7? Yeah, 7. I’ll text you which room it is later on so you don’t get too lost, and we’ll get started on setting everything up.”

“Sounds good to me, thank you Deacon. Thank you Louis!” Chloe was wearing a bright smile, and it sure was nice to see. Levi looked down at the table, taking another mouthful of whiskey.

“Okay, I don’t think that there’s anything else for us to do here. We’ll see you later on. Oh, and Levi? Give me your number so we can set up a group chat for us.”

Hesitantly, Levi wrote down his number and passed it to Deacon, who typed it into his phone.

“Alright, sorted. I’ll get on that later.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walking through the dorm room door, it was like a completely different place. Everything was tidied away, there was bowls of snacks laid out on Louis’ desk, pizza on Deacons’, with another table set up to hold the alcoholic drinks with the sodas. There was a playlist on in the background, which added a nice atmosphere to the room. The blinds were drawn, which kept the dark out.

“Alright,” Louis said, checking his phone, “so it’s almost 7, has Chloe texted you?”

“Yeah, I’ve given her the number so she’ll find it. Can you think of anything else before she gets here?”

“Is Levi definitely not turning up?”

Deacon grabbed a chip and crunched on it, checking his own phone.

“I don’t think so, I’ve had nothing from him. Oh well, that’s fine. Why?”

“Oh, I was just thinking about possible sleeping arrangements in case someone blacked out. I bet you Chloe’s a lightweight.”

Deacon chuckled lightly. “Nah, I reckon she’ll drink your ass under the floorboards.”

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Time to get this party started.


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come and say hi! ~ https://discord.gg/Xxs5KSW

Opening the door, he was stunned. Chloe had ditched her yellow coat and blue jeans for a rainbow sequin dress, her hair was let down instead of being in a ponytail and she wore a lovely black handbag, not that it was needed. It’s a shame that people always threw weight related insults at her, she was quite a beautiful young woman.

“H-hey, Louis. I got the right room.” She looked quite shy, not that she would have needed to be. She was with friends.

“Yeah, you are-I mean you did...um, come in! Let me take your numb-uh, bag. Let me take your bag.” Louis offered, struggling to even put a sentence together. She gave him her bag and walked in, looking at all the consumables.

“Wow, you guys really went all out, huh?”

Deacon smiled softly. He wore a black buttoned shirt with black jeans, with some light blue socks.

“We went all out? I took one glance at you and looked around for your boyfriend!” Chloe blushed heavily at the compliment and she sat down on Deacon’s bed.

“Do you want a beer? You don’t have to if you do-“

“I’d love one, if that’s alright.”

Louis chuckled, “I’ll get the first one for you, after that help yourself! It’s here to be drank, after all.” He fetched three beers for himself, Chloe and threw Deacon his. The sounds of cans opening echoed through the room.

“Here’s to new beginnings with three awesome people, although Levi isn’t here. I’m sure he’s drinking by himself so...” Everyone clinked their cans together before taking a mouthful.

“Ooh, that’s good. How strong is it?”

“It’s 5.8%, that’s really damn good for beer.” Chloe answered. “So, what do you guys think of Levi?”

Deacon took another mouthful of alcohol, thinking.

He’s cute.

“He’s a little bit wild and unpredictable. I don’t know if he’s being friendly for the sake of it, I don’t know when he’s being nasty, as a joke or not. He’s alright, I guess.”

Chloe sipped her beer, in thought.

“That’s understandable, he can be rather...eccentric I suppose, but in a dark way.”

“I dunno, he’s kinda cu-“ Deacon stopped himself before saying anything else, “nah, that’s not it. He’s definitely an interesting character, that’s for sure. I guess only time will tell what he’s really like, underneath all the angst. Louis?”

Louis was sat there now munching on a slice of pizza. “Hm? Oh...um, from what I’ve seen of him, he’s okay, I guess? I mean like, he’s such a hostile guy but he can be friendly if he needs be. Uhh, what about Kennedy?”

Deacon drank more of his beer.

“JFK? Are we going through EVERYONE in our class now? Well he’s a pretty friendly teacher, he’s kind and he isn’t, like...so far out of the loop when it comes to teenagers nowadays. He’s a decent dude, I hope his marriage is happy.”

Chloe finished her beverage, holding the can for a few minutes.

“I didn’t know he was married? I mean...is he?”

Louis leaned in, grabbing another beer and placing it at his foot. “You know, I’ve not seen any rings on his hands, or around his neck, cause some people like to wear rings on necklaces. I didn’t know he was married, and if he is then it sure as hell is obscure. Then again, I don’t really think he would want us to be discussing his relationship life...we’re just his students.”

He made a fair point, it wouldn’t be right to talk about Kennedy’s life like this. They didn’t know anything about him, so it was unfair to make assumptions. Chloe got another beer, cranking it open before taking a few large mouthfuls.

“You’re always surprising me,” spoke Deacon.

“DEACON ALDERSON! Did you just compliment a female?!” Louis laughed rather loudly, wanting to keep a conversation going. Deacon’s face turned a little red, and he opened another can of alcohol, changing the song in the background.

“What? What’s wrong with me being nice? Just ‘cause I’m gay, it doesn’t mean I can’t compliment a female? Fuck off.” He was half serious and the other two knew that. He started eating a slice of pizza, using his beer to wash it down.

“I didn’t know you were gay?”

“Nobody does, I don’t really care anyway. It’s not exactly important information.”

Chloe nodded, drinking some more. They would all be lying if they said that they weren’t experiencing at least a buzz off the alcohol.

“Hey, guys. Truth or dare?” Chloe and Deacon shuffled closer to Louis, listening intently. “I’ll pick first.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“And where the fuck do you think you’re going, huh? You’re staying here!”

A bottle was thrown, smashing next to his head and he held up an arm in form of a shield to protect himself. Why did this always have to happen? He looked at them, struggling to get off the Goddamn couch.

“I’m not staying here while you drink yourself to death, that can fuck right off! I’m going somewhere else.”

“O-oh...*hic* and where’ll that be? Hopefully off to work so you can learn to finally pay your way in *hic* your miserable fucking life!”

“It’s miserable because of you and your fucking problems! You don’t work, you sit on your fat ass all day and drink yourself to sleep! It would be fine if you didn’t drink over TWENTY cans a day, you’re going to get sick and fucking die!”

The intoxicated figure stumbled to his feet, falling against the wall for support.

“I’m not going to die...you won’t let me. You’ll pay for it!”

“No, I won’t because I don’t give a shit about you and I don’t care if you die! Not that it matters if I did card because it wouldn’t stop you anyway!”

“You wanna fucking say that to me again, huh?” He towered over the smaller figure, trying to instil fear...and it worked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MENTIONS OF DRUGS/DRUG USE BELOW!!!

Deacon decided on getting some air, the alcohol was getting to him. Stumbling a little, he managed to sit down on a bench and gather himself. He’d consumed about five beers at this point.

“Hooh...that’s strong...” He looked up at the sky, almost mesmerised by the twinkling stars above.

“...oh, fuck you too!” The sound of a door slamming drew Deacon’s attention and he watched, trying to see if he could figure out what was causing the commotion. A figure emerged from the shadow, seemingly not having noticed Deacon. They took out a box and put something in their mouth before lighting it, continuing to walk. They had their hands over their mouth, lighter in fingers when they saw the intoxicated teenager.

“Ugh, what the fuck do you want?” Deacon blinked.

“L-Levi...? You good?” He pulled his smoking item away from his face, blowing it into Deacon’s face. It smelled sweet. “That...that’s not allowed here.” Levi inhaled some more, blowing the smoke above his head.

“And? You going to snitch?” He sat down next to Deacon, not letting him answer. The drunk male decided that he probably shouldn’t, so he stayed quiet. For a couple of minutes, they sat in silence. Levi passed the blunt over to Deacon, who looked at him strangely.

“Uh...is that a good idea?”

Levi glared at him, impatiently. “You want this or not?”

Hesitantly, Deacon took it and inhaled, like he’d seen Levi doing. Suddenly, he felt a burning in his chest and he started coughing, much to Levi’s entertainment.

“Hah, you’ve never done this before. Don’t worry, it’s not going to kill you. It’ll just make you feel lighter.” He breathed in some more, holding it for about 15 seconds before blowing it out. “By the way, I know you have my knife and cigarettes.”

Deacon stared at him, mouth agape. Levi passed the drug back again, the two continuing to smoke. “How did you-“

“Pretty fuckin’ obvious, you know. First suspicion was when you went head first under the table in class moments before I got taken out. Coincidence or whatever, but that makes sense to me. Secondly, I spoke about it earlier on and you couldn’t look me in the eyes.”

“That’s because you’re a scary guy.”

“Hm, I know but still. Am I correct in assuming that you have my shit?” Deacon nodded, blowing out smoke that he’d tried desperately to not choke on. “I thought so. Do you have it on you? Well, I suppose not. Can we go and get it soon? I’m thinking of having some pizza too.” Deacon smiled and nodded, his head feeling fuzzier now from the drugs.

“Yeah...I’m feeling kinda wild...”

“That’ll be the weed. Have you been drinking?”

Deacon nodded, blinking a few times. Levi scoffed.

“Yeah, of course. That’ll do it. Come on, let’s go.” Deacon climbed to his feet and so did Levi, although it sounded like he let out a sharp and pained breath of oxygen.

“You okay?”

“Nngh, I’m fine. Let’s go.”

The pair walked, or rather stumbled, back to Deacons’ dorm room, the music slowly getting louder. It wasn’t loud in itself, but their senses were heightened. Deacon opened the door, finding Louis chugging a beer with Chloe cheering him on.

“Do-*hic*-done! Oh heyyy Levi!”

Chloe looked at Levi too, a smile plastered on her face.

“You made it!...you guys okay? You’re looking a little sheepish...”

Levi nodded, sighing. “Just a bit baked, is all. You got my stuff?”

Deacon went over to his rucksack and opened it, fishing for his classmates belongings for a few moments before pulling them out.

“Y-yeah, here you are.” He held out the knife and cigarettes, which Levi took appreciatively. He stuffed them into his pockets and turned around for the door.

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t want to interject here.”

Deacons’ smile fell. “It’s no problem you being here, we invited you earlier and you can still stay if you want.”

Levi looked at the door for a moment, then back to his classmates.

“Maybe I am a little hungry...” Levi looked at the pizza and the beer, then to his acquaintances, thinking. Deacon retrieved a beer and a slice of pizza on a paper plate, giving it to Levi with a warm smile, who accepted it gratefully.

“Thanks...”

Deacon nodded and then turned to his roommate.

“So, what’ve you guys been doing?”

Louis chuckled and Chloe got herself another slice. “We’ve just been fucking around, getting absolutely waaaysted!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours had passed since Levi turned up, the time getting close to midnight. Everybody was considerably drunk, two of them a little high still but not as much as before. Most of the food had been eaten too, but there were still quite a few beers left, and nobody even touched the soda.

“I’m gonna go to...I’ll be right back...”

Levi staggered into the bathroom and closed the door rather loudly.

“How’d you manage to get him here?” Louis was drunk now, heavily and so was Chloe. Deacon was on his way there.

“Well, I went out for some air and he came out too, simply a coincidence. We smoked for a bit and then he wanted his stuff, so he came here with me. He didn’t have any intention of staying.”

Suddenly, a loud crash was heard echoing from the bathroom and Deacon bolted up.

“The fuck was that...Levi? You okay?” There seemed to have been a mumbled answer as it wasn’t clear at all, and then silence.

“You wanna go check on him or should I?” Chloe looked over at the door curiously, wondering if he was okay. Louis was pretty drunk, so he wouldn’t be able to give much help.

“I’ll go, hopefully he only knocked something over.”

Deacon stood up against the door and knocked on it gently, all eyes on him.

“Hey, you good in there?”

“...”

Another knock.

“You alright, Levi?”

“...no...”

“Do you want me to come in?” He waited for a few seconds, but nothing came back as a reply. Louis threw a chip at the door.

“Go in there, he might be hurt.”

Deacon opened the door, peering in.

“I’m coming in, alright?” He walked in and closed the door, finding Levi wrapped in the shower curtains in the bath. “Hey Levi, you alright?” Deacon pulled the curtain away, having noted that the only thing Levi wasn’t wearing was a shirt, which was on the floor. Strange, he didn’t remember Levi consuming anything red...or spilling it on himself. Curtains back, his eyes laid onto Levi who was shaking a little, holding his arms to his chest. His face looked gaunt and he didn’t look at Deacon for a few moments, causing the other male to wonder if he was even sentient. “Levi? You okay?” The man in the bathtub slowly looked at Deacon before moving his arms away.

“Shit, Levi...”


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come and say hi! ~ https://discord.gg/Xxs5KSW

Deacon knelt next to the bath, resting his own arms on the side. Levi revealed multiple dark bruises and cuts on his body, some of them still bleeding, presumably from the fall he just had. They weren’t small bruises either, it looked like he had been hit with something. He was surprisingly toned...no, not the time.

“Levi...who did this...?”

“...”

“Can you move?”

Levi tried pulling himself up but it was like all of the effort and strength from his body was drained. They heard laughter from the other side of the wall, at least they were having fun.

“I’m going to try pulling you up, okay? We need to get you out of the bath, come on.” Deacon initially thought that he was just drunk, but there was something else going on. He pulled Levi up as much as he could, being thankful that the other party was helping too. After a couple of minutes, Levi flopped out of the bath face down and he grunted loudly in pain.

“Nngh, shit!” He pushed himself off the floor with Deacons’ assistance and sat himself on the bath, leaning against the wall. “I didn’t want anyone to see this...” His face turned red out of embarrassment and Deacon picked up his shirt, looking at the blood for a moment before putting it in the bathroom sink, running the tap.

“It’s alright, it doesn’t bother me. Well it does, but you know what I mean. Okay, lean forward for me.”

Levi did as he was told and Deacon examined his back. Nothing there. Levi shuffled back again, sighing and holding his head in his hands. He felt bad for this...? Deacon got a cloth wet and knelt next to Levi again.

“This is going to hurt, alright? I’m sorry, but I need to clean your wounds, I don’t think you want them getting infected.”

“You a doctor now?”

“No, but I’ve done a couple of things regarding helping people like this. Plus, I’m not exactly performing surgery. Take my hand and squeeze it whenever it hurts, okay? It won’t be gay.”

Hesitantly, Levi laid his palm onto Deacons’ hand, while he watched the other teen intently. Deacon gently dabbed the cloth against one of his bigger cuts, causing him to suck in air sharply through his teeth.

“Ow...fuck.”

“We’ll be done soon, don’t worry.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wounds cleaned and patched up, Deacon found a shirt of his and gave it to Levi, who remained in the bathroom. He had more colour in his face, which was good.

“Do you want to tell me how this happened?” Levi looked to the side, huffing a little.

“It was...my own fault. I did this to myself.”

He sounded uncertain about his own statement, which set some doubt into Deacons’ mind, but he didn’t question it further.

“Alright, well you have to be more careful, okay? Getting hurt like this really isn’t good.”

“No shit...” Deacon checked on the shirt that was soaking in the sink. Still pretty red.

“You’ll have to leave that here for now so I can get all the blood out. You can keep that shirt, I’ve got many more.” It was only a black t-shirt, but Levi crumpled the bottom of it in his hand.

“I...appreciate this, Deacon. Don’t fucking tell anyone about this.” He was very serious but instead of feeling intimidated, Deacon simply smiled.

“Of course. It’s not my place.”

“Not your place, what? You trailed off.”

“No, I didn’t. I meant that it’s not my place to tell anyone.” Levi looked down at his hands.

“Oh. Sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologise to me, Levi. It’s alright. Do you need me to get you anything, or are you coming back out?”

He didn’t answer verbally but he climbed to his feet, leaning on the wall for support, then straightened himself out like nothing even happened. How often does he have to pretend that he isn’t in pain...?

“Alright, well just take it easy and I’ll get you another beer. Go sit on my bed, it’s pretty comfortable.”

“I like comfy shit.” Deacon turned to the door before a hand hit his shoulder and he looked back at Levi.

“Thanks, Deacon.” The pair went back into the main dorm room and Levi sat down as told, reaching over for a slice of pizza. It was cold but he didn’t mind, still tasted damn good. Deacon sat down and started talking with Louis about a past event, as Louis was telling Chloe about it.

“You guys known each other for a while?”

Louis smirked at Levi and Chloe, before pulling Deacon into a bear hug.

“Yup! We’ve been bros for about...like...ever. God, I’m drunk. Levi throw some pizza to me!” He spoke very quickly, but the other teen was able to pick up each word. He grabbed a slice and rolled it up into a shape of a small cylinder before throwing it. Louis watched him so he knew what Levi was doing, so he opened his mouth and caught it, holding it in his teeth.

“I fhn dgidge itch!”

Nobody knew what he said so he took a bite and removed the rest from his mouth, allowing him to speak properly.

“I fuckin’ did it!” Chloe and Deacon started cheering for him for catching that, it was silly but they were all intoxicated. Deacon glanced at Levi every now and again, offering him a small comforting smile. Levi didn’t smile back, but he appreciated it nonetheless. Levi struggled to his feet and retrieved another beer, pulling out his knife. Everyone had their eyes on him.

“What are you doing there?”

A sly look spread across Levi’s’ face as, in one swift movement, he stabbed the can and held the exposed part to his mouth. It sprayed him and the wall, everything within a two foot radius getting a light dusting of beer and then he opened it by the top, drinking all the contents within a few seconds. He let out a deep breath and threw the empty can into the bin.

“Holy shit, you gotta teach me that!”

“What, you never shotgunned a beer before? You saw how I did it, go ahead.” Levi flipped his knife down so it was safe and then he tossed it to Chloe while Louis got her another beer. She stabbed the can too, like she watched Levi do it and then she drank it all in one.

“That was easy.”

“That was...impressive for your first try. Don’t think I’ve ever seen somebody do that on the first go. Deacon, you wanna give it a try?”

Levi taught all three of them how to shotgun a can of beer, although it was quite messy when Deacon tried it. He sprayed himself and spilled some beer on the floor, which got a couple of laughs. As usual, Levi just watched.

“Alright so Chloe is a fucking beast, remind me to not challenge you at a drinking game.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The party carried on for another couple of hours or so, Chloe had to leave as she needed to be up early the next day. Louis had passed out on his bed, snoring gently.

“We aren’t going to be sober enough to go to class.”

“That’s cool, I don’t think Kennedy will mind too much. He’s pretty chill. Even when he spoke to me alone, he was pretty calm and good. Plus, some of the food we’ve eaten will soak up the alcohol...hopefully. Thanks for letting me stay, Deacon. I appreciate it. I didn’t want to go back to my room.” Levi looked down at his hands and noticed that he’d been twiddling his thumbs idly. Deacon smiled softly at him.

“It’s okay...do you mind if I ask why you don’t want to go back? You don’t have to say if you don’t want to, I’m not going to push the subject.”

Levi sighed, pocketing his knife as he got another slice of pizza, noting that there wasn’t much of it left.

“I have a secluded dorm away from everyone else, where I stay with my father. He’s friends with the Principal and my house burnt down a few weeks ago, so we’ve been living here full time, even before classes started. He’s an asshole.”

“Is he the one who did that to you?”

Levi glared at him, but then his expression softened. His eyes darted to Louis to make sure that he was asleep before he spoke.

“He likes to drink a lot, which is fine because I do too, but he takes things too far all the time. Especially if he’s in a bad mood.”

“If he’s hurting you then why don’t you say anything? Oh, I suppose you can’t, he’s friends with the Principal.”

Levi snapped his fingers. “Exactly.”

Deacon thought for a moment.

“I could swap with you, and you could stay in here? I don’t think he’d attack me, he doesn’t know me and I’m a student so we’d just stay out of each other’s way.”

Levi looked at Deacon, almost hopeful.

“You’d do that...? No, I’m not going to allow that. I’m not risking you getting injured simply because my father is a prick and I’m too scared to be around him.”

“Are you scared?”

“Sometimes. Other days, I just don’t care. Since mom left, I’ve had a lot of shit to deal with from him because I’m the only one there. Then there’s the fact he’s always trying to push me into getting a girlfriend which I don’t fucking want.”

“Why can’t you move out?”

“It’s not that easy. I used to have a job at the movies. I liked it there, but dad was taking everything from my pay check. Said it was to cover my rent, but not everything I earned. Every time I have money, it’s like he can sniff it out and he’ll find it, no matter what I do with it. He came into my workplace one day, demanding to my manager that I get my pay check early so he could go to the bar. Of course, my manager told him to piss off, but then he fired me. Said I was a liability to the company because of my father.”

“I’m sorry. If you need any financial help that he won’t know about, just let me know. I’m not exactly a billionaire but I’m not strapped for cash either.” Deacon offered, along with a small reassuring smile. Levi shook his head.

“Nah, you’ve already kept me from being kicked out slash arrested...and you saved me from my father tonight. Oh yeah, you also gave me your lunch earlier. You’ve done enough for me already.” He looked over to the empty boxes. “Did I really eat that much...?”

“Nope. Chloe, Louis and myself helped.”

“I ate at least two of those pizzas by myself.” He sounded annoyed at himself. “I’m sorry.”

Deacon shuffled closer to Levi, shaking his head.

“No no no, it’s alright. Um, I need to ask but you don’t need to answer; do you even get to eat when you’re with your father?”

Levi looked down at the floor, the beer stain in particular. “Couple of times a week, maybe ten times a month.”

Deacon’s mouth fell open out of shock and he stared at Levi for a second. Damn...he really was cute. DEACON STOP IT, THIS IS NOT THE TIME. HELP HIM.

“That’s really shitty. Look, me and Louis buy loads of shit every week. We always have done, it’s almost like a tradition. If you aren’t getting to eat, you can always let me know and I’ll make something for you.”

“I’m not a-“

“Charity case, I know this already. I don’t think you are. Your fucking house burnt down, dude. It’s understandable that you’re struggling and your father doesn’t seem to be of any help whatsoever.”

“...why are you being so fucking kind to me? I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m a bit of an asshole, not to mention that I was downright rude to you on the first day.”

Deacon chuckled, earning a confused glare from Levi.

“Yeah, but I took it with a pinch of salt. Plus, you helped me and Chloe with those pricks as well. And then, you came into our group to lend a hand too.”

“And then you all gave me your food, and I didn’t ask for that.” Levi almost sounded irritated so Deacon did his best to keep him calm. Drunk people are always unpredictable.

“I know, but it would have been rude of us to eat our food right in front of you when you had nothing. Plus, I always make myself too much, I tend to feed the birds with anything I have left. Obviously not chocolate or anything, but you know what I mean.”

Nodding his head, Levi looked at Deacon.

“Thanks for being kind to me, and I’m sorry that I was an asshole.”

Deacon smiled at him reassuringly.

“You don’t need to thank me. But anyway, would you come here if I made you dinner? Obviously you’d need to let me know beforehand so you don’t turn up when I hadn’t cooked for you...” he offered.

“You’re not really going to let me say no, are you?”

“Well of course it’s down to you, but I don’t want you to like...not eat. Is that a yes?”

“It isn’t a no, but that’s the best you’ll get.” Both of them knew what that meant and Deacon smiled again.

“I’m glad. All things considered, how are you feeling?”

Levi took a steadying breath, thinking. Deacon didn’t jump in, he waited patiently.

“This has been the best day this year so far, so I guess I’m feeling alright.”

“That’s good.” A thought came into his head and he maybe should have considered it earlier. “Is your father going to be pissed off that you didn’t come home?”

Levi shook his head again, glancing out the window.

“Rain’s coming in. No, he told me to fuck off and then locked the door behind me, so he won’t give a shit.”

“Wait, you’ve been locked out?”

“Mmhm. Happens a lot, if I’m honest. I don’t mind though, I’ve got this little tent in the forest not too far away that I stay in. It’s right next to a creek too so I have fresh water.” He looked at Deacons’ face and sighed. “Look, it’s not as depressing there as you think. I’m alone from everybody, from society. It’s just me and the birds that build nests around. I’ve got a nice little campfire there too, which is always aesthetic. I like being outside, always have done. Don’t get me wrong, I prefer being inside but when you don’t have a lot, you make the best with what you’ve got.” He was being surprisingly positive about his situation, or maybe he just didn’t want Deacon to worry. “Crap, that reminds me. I’ve got to get a pan or something so I can cook a fish if I manage to catch one.”

“Levi, why don’t you stay here tonight? You just said that it’s raining, I hadn’t even noticed and if you go out in that at this time of morning, you’ll catch a cold or something worse.”

“Why are you so concerned about me? Is it some kind of fetish to be this caring?”

Deacon chuckled to himself.

“Nah, just being a decent person. I know you’d have done the same for me if I was in your shoes.” Levi simply stared at him. “Well, I guess not but nobody knows. You can take my bed and I’ll cook us three something in the morning, how does that sound?”

Levi stayed silent for a minute or so, and Deacon waited patiently. It was a lot to think about so he wanted to give Levi time to process it all.

“...I like pancakes...” Levi spoke in such a quiet voice, it was barely audible. He didn’t look at Deacon either when he spoke, he almost sounded upset.

“Pancakes it is. Do you prefer the toaster ones or freshly made?”

“I’ve never had ones freshly made, mom always bought the toaster ones. She did this little thing where she’d make them and put some blueberries on top in the shape of a smiley face, and she always gave me a glass of milk with it. It didn’t matter if I was three years old or thirteen years old, she always did that every week, no matter what. Sorry, I went on a tangent there.” He wiped his eye and sniffled.

“Don’t apologise, she sounds like a lovely woman. I can do that for you if you would like, but I can make them fresh too.”

Louis grumbled and rolled over, Levi freezing in place.

“Deek...we don’t have any pancakes...you forgot to get them.”

“Um, how much of that did you hear?” Levi spoke, almost angry.

“Huh? I heard fuck all, but I caught Deek talking about pancakes. I didn’t hear any of what you said, Levi. I don’t care either, no offence but you weren’t talking to me so it’s not my place to listen to you. I’m going back to sleep, goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Louis.”

“Night.”

The pair sat there for a few moments, simply watching Louis sleep and move about. He’s usually really peaceful, but tonight he seemed more restless.

“Louis? You awake?” Pause. “Louis, there’s a naked blonde who just came into the room and she wants a place to stay. Can she sleep in your bed?” Nothing at all. “Okay he’s out for the count. Where were we...? Oh right, no pancakes. I could make you a fry-up if you want?”

Levi shook his head. “If it’s okay, I don’t really want more oil soaked toast.”

“Wait...you do know what a fry-up is, right?”

Levi looked at him questioningly.

“Yeah, it’s oil soaked toast. I just said that, didn’t I?”

Is that all he’s been getting fed? That’s really not good...

“That’s not a fry-up. I learned how to make it when I went to England one time with my old school, Louis came with me too. So what they do is they have these big ass plates and they fry mushrooms, bacon, sausages, eggs, hash browns, tomatoes and bread. It can take up a bit of space, usually you’ll need a couple of pans but it’s relatively easy. Once, I made this all but I put the toast on the plate and buttered that, then I poured the contents of the pan onto the toast, then topped it off with some hot sauce and the other slice of toast, cut it in half and all done.”

“That...sounds really good. Um, could I have that?”

Deacon nodded, smiling. “This mean you’re going to stay here tonight?”

“I mean...if that’s not an issue. Sorry, should have asked first.”

Deacon put his hand onto Levis’, but they both believed that the alcohol was simply kicking in so Levi didn’t make a fuss. Deacon hoped that Levi didn’t take his hand away, he felt warm.

“I offered first, so don’t worry. You can take my bed.”

“Where are you going to sleep? Last time I checked, there are two beds in this room and he’s sprawled out on that one. Plus the couch doesn’t look comfortable.” Levi was correct, Louis has star-fished in his bed. It looked rather uncomfortable.

“I can sleep anywhere, I’m not fussed.”

“I’m not taking your own bed from you.”

“I don’t think you would be okay with sleeping in the same bed as a gay guy, so I’ll take the couch. It’s really no bother to me.” Deacon said, reassuringly. Hopefully Levi glazed over the admission, or didn’t notice altogether.

“I don’t care if you’re gay or not, I’m not taking your bed from you. If I’m sleeping in it, then at the very least so are you. You’re giving me so much hospitality as it is, I can’t expect you to sleep on the couch.”

Okay, so he did notice but Deacon was glad that he didn’t care, at least. He also realised that he wasn’t going to get anywhere by arguing back.

“Alright, fine. We’ll both sleep in my bed. Quick question, you sleep naked?”

Levi’s face turned a little red. “Uh, why do you ask?”

“If you do, then I can get another blanket which we could use but also keep between us so there’s no...uh...contact, physical or visual.” Deacon mentally reprimanded himself for asking such an awkward question.

“It’s fine. I’ll sleep in my boxers. You can sleep naked if you want, I honestly don’t care. It’s your bed and you’ve allowed me to stay here so it’s kind of at my discretion, or at my own risk.”

Deacon shook his head again. “No, we can both sleep in our boxers. I think that would be the safest course of action.”

“Yeah.” Levi looked at his phone, the screen was cracked as well. “Fucking hell, it’s 3AM. We should probably go to sleep soon.” Deacon agreed.

“Mmhm, yeah we should. Plus, the beer is starting to get me in a not-so-good way, sleeping would be a good idea.” Deacon stood up and moved close to the door, facing away from Levi while they both undressed. He was curious about Levi’s physical form but he did not want to take advantage of the situation. If only he knew that Levi was looking at Deacons’ body instead. Without turning around, he spoke again. “Am I good to turn the light off?”

“Yeah, you’re all good.” With a small click, the room was submerged in darkness, aside from the faint moonlit glow through the rain-soaked window. It was really fucking dark. Levi got into bed first, shuffling up against the wall and Deacon got in too. He used his hands to delicately figure out where Levi was, so he knew how much space they both had. His hand touched some cloth and he instantly pulled his hand back.

“Uh, what was that?”

Thankful that Levi couldn’t see how red his face was, Deacon got himself comfortable.

“Sorry, just getting comfy. I didn’t touch anything, did I?”

“You almost fuckin’ did...but you didn’t, so it’s okay.” Deacon could tell that Levi was trying to be kind towards him but he knew that there would still be some events from time to time. “Hey, Deek? Thank you, for all of this.”

“It’s completely fine...goodnight, Levi.”

“...goodnight, Deacon.”

It didn’t take long for Deacon to fall asleep, as he was snoring gently within minutes. Levi stayed awake for about fifteen minutes, listening to him. Gently, he took his temporary roommates hand and delicately held it, trying not to move. He was thankful that it was dark and everyone was asleep, because he smiled for the first time in months.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m alive, and back from my hiatus! If you’re annoyed with my sudden disappearances, then please join my Discord server where you’ll get more information, and I tend to be there when I’m not writing. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter! Love you all!
> 
> Discord: https://discord.gg/Xxs5KSW

Without hostility being the first thing he woke up to, Levi opened his eyes and felt calm. He felt about the bed to see if Deacon was there and almost seemed disheartened that he wasn’t. Truth be told, he slept exceptionally well for the first time in an even longer time than his no smiling record. He sat up and stretched, the cover falling down, exposing his bruises and he quickly covered himself, looking around to see if anyone saw them. Louis was still asleep and Deacon was in the kitchen, cooking. Levi grabbed Deacons’...or rather his...shirt off the floor and threw it on as well as his jeans, getting up out of bed. He stretched again and walked into the kitchen, the smell of a hearty breakfast filling the air. Deacon only wore his underwear, seemingly too distracted by the cooking and Levi had to remind himself to not stare.

“Oh, you’re awake! Good timing, I’ve just finished cooking. Uh, where do you want to sit?” Deacon plated up three breakfasts and held two in his hands, one on his forearm, balanced neatly. It was impressive, really.

“Um, wherever really, I don’t mind.”

“Okay, well me and Louis tend to just eat in bed. It’s comfy and you know, I’ve been prepping and cooking this for over an hour already so I’m allowed to, right?” He smiled softly.

“Right. Okay, we can eat there, I’ll take the couch this time.”

“Stop it, you’re sitting with me. I’d like you to be comfortable.” Deacon carried the plates through and laid two down on his bed. “Yo, Lou! Get your lazy ass up, I’ve made you food.” Louis grumbled and sat up, definitely looking worse for wear. “Damn dude, you look worse than you must feel.”

“Fuck off, Deek...I’m pretty sure I feel worse than I look. What did you make?”

“English breakfast, you remember that?” Louis rubbed his eyes before taking the plate from his roommate.

“Yeah, I do. You’re damn good at cooking, thanks dude.” Levi picked up his plate and climbed back into bed, laying it on his lap and Deacon did the same. They had some more contact under the covers but neither party thought anything of it. Deacon grinned at the other two before eating. Levi took a bite of each food item, finding himself surprised.

“Goddamn, Deek. That’s good!”

“Hehe, I’m glad you like it!”

Levi enjoyed it more than he thought he would, the three of them eating in a comfortable silence. After breakfast, Levi tried taking Deacons’ plate.

“Oh it’s okay, I’ll sort them out later on.”

“But you cooked? I’ll clean them, it’s the least I can do.” Deacon chuckled lightly, putting the plate on his desk.

“Don’t worry about it, you’re my guest.”

“I was just about to ask, did you stay here?”

Levi’s’ face turned a little red, thinking of the previous nights conversations. Thankfully, Deacon spoke up.

“Oh he passed out, like...maybe five minutes after you? I went for a shower and when I came back, I found him on my bed out for the count.” Louis chuckled.

“Oh, so you didn’t get any?” The reactions of the two gave Louis his answer.

“Uh, I was just kidding.” Both Deacon and Levi would have been lying if they were to say that they didn’t think of a scenario in their heads at that moment. At that moment, thankfully, Louis’ phone vibrated and he glanced at it before throwing it down.

“Shit!!! I’m taking my sister to the aquarium today, fuck!” Levi looked at him confused.

“You sure you’re able to drive?” Louis practically jumped out of bed and got himself dressed as quickly as possible.

“I’ll be fine, tell Kennedy that I’m busy today but I’ll catch up on the work! Shit, where are my keys?”

“They’re on your desk behind the soda, and you do know we don’t have classes today? It’s Saturday.”

“Awesome, that’s even better. I’ll see you guys later on, peace!” He grabbed his keys and practically sprinted out the door, slamming it behind himself and Deacon sighed.

“Of course he’d leave all the fucking cleaning to me again...every Goddamn time we have a party, he finds an excuse to get out of cleaning. I’m just going to put it under his covers and he can deal with it when he gets back.”

Levi blinked a few times, confused.

“But then that defeats the objective of cleaning in the first place if you’re just going to make it messy somewhere else...plus he’ll just be mad at you.” 

Deacon chuckled.

“Since when did you care about what other people thought?” Levi stayed quiet, not really sure what to say. He’s the type of guy who would have a comeback for everything, so if you could silence him then something was up, or he cared.

“I...uh, I’ll help you clean up. I’m not doing anything else today.”

Deacon retrieved a black bag to put all of the trash in and laid it against the bed, grabbing a couple of cans before putting them in.

“You don’t have to, you know. You’re a-“

“-guest, I know but I helped make this mess. It’s only fair.”

“You won’t take no for an answer, will you?” Deacon chuckled a little.

“I only take no for an answer when it’s important.” Out of nowhere, Deacons’ phone started ringing and he answered it while Levi grabbed a few empty cans to throw away. He didn’t listen into the phone call, it had nothing to do with him so it wasn’t important to him.

“Oh, that’s strange. His phone just cut off.” Deacon tried calling back, but it went straight to answerphone.

“Who was it?”

“It was Louis.” Levi thought to himself for a moment.

“He’s driving, so he’s probably had to turn it off so he doesn’t get arrested for being on the phone and driving.” Deacon started helping out with the cleaning again.

“Yeah, you’re right. I thought he pulled over, but I could hear his truck. I’ll text him to call me later on.”

Within an hour, the room was as it was before the previous night. All cans cleared up, pizza boxes torn up and disposed of and the stains on the carpet have been cleaned out. Deacon went into the kitchen.

“You want anything?” He called from the other room.

Levi stood up and followed his friends’ voice, thinking.

“Sure, a, uh, got any soda left?” Within moments, they pair were back in the main room, which doubled as a bedroom, and Levi put some music on to help with the silence.

“How are you feeling today, regarding...?” Deacon took a sip of his soda, unsure of whether he should say or not. Thankfully, Levi understood what he was getting at.

“Oh...I’m alright, actually. Thanks for helping me out with that, I know I said that before but I felt I needed to say it again. Usually, I just let the injuries go away on their own accord. Doesn’t take too long.”

Hearing this disheartened Deacon, and he almost felt a pain in his chest.

“How...how often does this happen?” He thought about the word ‘usually’. Levi thought nothing of it.

“Too much, dude. One day he’ll stop though, because I’m going to turn around and sock him in the face. I can’t show him this shirt, though. He’ll think I stole it so if it’s okay, I’ll take my other one back when it’s cleaner than it currently is.” He felt the material and then sighed. “Shame, it’s a nice shirt. Not my colour, mind you but it’s still alright.”

Suddenly, an idea popped up in Deacon’s head and he grabbed his phone.

“Hey, look at this. There’s this new store that opened up so if you want to, we can go and get you some stuff?”

Levi felt hopeful, but then sighed and crossed his arms, glaring once more.

“Deacon, I don’t need your pity like that. I’m not a charity case.”

Like the day before, Deacon simply nodded and replied with “I know” with a smile.

“Tch. Alright.” What was with this guy, under what circumstance was he being so kind? “There’s one problem, I don’t...well...”

“You’re broke as shit?” 

Levi rolled his eyes at Deacons’ statement, taking partial offence.

“That’s one way to put it, you don’t have to say it like that though,” he grumbled.

“Dude you lost your fucking house in a fire. Don’t sweat it. Come on, it’s not too far from here which is good.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It truly was a beautiful day, the sun was shining brightly, birds were singing and there were few clouds spread out across the sky. Lots of people were out and about, doing their own thing. Deacon and Levi walked down the street, Levi keeping his head under a hood, not wanting people to see him.

“Alright so first things first, what do you need?”

Levi walked next to him, a little absent minded. “I...uh, I don’t know. A house would be nice,” he chuckled lightly.

“I can’t do that, but what about clothes? Shoes, jackets, underwear, stuff like that?”

“I guess...all of it? I only really have a couple of shirts, maybe three pairs of jeans, same with socks and underwear. I just rotate every few days, cleaning them every day so it’s always fresh.” He looked down at his boots, which quite frankly were falling apart. The laces were frayed, the bottoms of the boots itself looked like they’d been torn off and then repaired with super glue. Arguably, he needed new shoes most out of anything.

Deacon looked at his phone briefly, listening. His heart felt sad. “You really don’t have a lot, huh.” It seemed more of a statement than a question, but Levi didn’t answer anyway. The smaller male looked embarrassed at hearing the words and kept his face hidden. Suddenly, an ambulance tore right past them, lights flashing and siren blaring and the pair watched it round a corner, hearing it slowly fade away.

“Someone’s in trouble. I hope they’re okay. Anyway, here’s the new store.”

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” said Levi quietly. He genuinely felt bad for this.

“It’s okay, I want to. Come on.”

The pair entered the store, getting hit with that everlasting scent of a clothes store which seems to be in every clothes store in existence. A few people were wandering about, searching for things to buy for themselves and others.

Deacon turned to Levi, “It’s rather quiet here, so that’s good at least. I know you’re not the most fond of people existing around you.”

“You got that right. Let’s get this over and done with, I don’t like being out.” They browsed the store for a little while, Deacon finding out that Levi has a particular fondness for either purely black or purely red t-shirts.

“Which do you think? Black or red?” Levi held them both up, indecisive. Deacon sighed and smiled softly.

“Get both of them. Don’t worry about costing me a lot, I can cover it.”

Levi checked the price tags and paled a little, swallowing. “They’re $10 each. That’s a lot of money.”

“No, it’s really not. That’s a packet of cigarettes or like, four beers. Have you ever gone shopping before?”

“Yeah, I have!” Levi spoke defensively. “Dad always gave me a budget of $10 to get whatever I wanted, or what I could find. We used to go every three months or so, so it wasn’t like he just forgot about me.” Deacon just stared at him in surprise.

“Every few months, he would give you $10 for clothes?”

“Yeah? Do you think that it’s too much? He used to say that sometimes too...” Levi looked at the shirts.

“No, I don’t think that’s enough. Get both of the shirts, and if you find any more you like them pick them up.”

The two walked around the store more, Deacon thinking of what Levi said. He’s really had a shitty upbringing...he doesn’t deserve that. Next on the agenda was jeans.

“I’m not indecisive with jeans, so I’ll just grab these and then we can move on.” Levi found a pair of black jeans which displayed multiple cuts in the knee area and down the legs in a rough pattern, so he checked the sizes, took them and started moving forwards. Deacon watched him for a second and then picked up another pair in the same size as well as a grey pair, which didn’t have cuts in them. Shoes was the next area.

“Okay, I know what size I am so I’m just going to look for what I need.” Deacon sat down, not needing to follow Levi around the shoe section. Hundreds must have been on display in this short space, it was almost baffling how they got so many in.

“Don’t get what you need, get what you want.”

A few moments later, Levi returned holding a pair of black, red and white high tops that looked pretty damn cool.

“These the ones you want?”

“Yeah, but I can’t find a price tag.” He looked around on the shoe before passing it to Deacon. Even he struggled, but he found it tucked away under the tongue of the shoe. When he saw it, he tried to hide his shock. He glanced back at Levi, who couldn’t take his eyes off the shoe.

“I...uh, I can’t find it either. Just get them, we’ll find out when we buy them. What else do you need?”

Levi stood there for a moment, trying to decide. “So that’s shoes, jeans and shirts. I have two jackets, so I don’t need more of those. I think it’s just socks, underwear and that now.”

The two walked over to the garments section and Levi picked out a few pairs of black socks with some boxers that looked rather tight, a spiked belt and a couple of cans of deodorant.

“I don’t think I’ve ever come back from a clothes store with so much in my life,” spoke Levi quietly as he held half of his items on the way to the checkout.

I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much in a clothes store in my life, thought Deacon. It was worth it though, Levi looked happy for once. He wasn’t wearing a smile but he was almost fascinated with what he had, like he was a homeless child who was just given a meal and a room to stay in for free. All of the items were scanned and the woman behind the counter eyed them both up a little, maybe putting two and three together to get nineteen.

“That it for you couple?” That caught them off guard. Levi withdrew into himself more, clearly embarrassed and Deacon went a little red but did his best to keep a straight face.

“Couple? We’re not a couple, just friends but that will be all, thank you.”

The woman sighed and chewed on a piece of gum, idly pressing a few buttons. She clearly didn’t want to be there.

“Your total is $367.95. Cash or card?” Levi’s eyes almost exploded when he heard the total.

“Excuse me? How is it that expensive? We only have a few items!”

She glared at Levi, who looked incredulous.

“You do realise that the shoes are $300 in themselves, right?”

Levi’s face paled and he looked at Deacon apologetically.

“I’m sorry, I’ll put these back.” He reached over to take the shoes but pulled his hand away when Deacon pinged his card on the machine with a little beep, leaving the smaller male speechless. The cashier pushed everything into a bag and then gave it to Deacon with his receipt, displaying some annoyed attitude.

“See ya.”

The two walked out of the store out into the sunlight again, Deacon irritated at her lack of customer service.

“You know, my heart goes out to everybody who works in retail and stuff because of the customers that they have to deal with, but it doesn’t give them the right to treat a customer like that if they hadn’t done anything wrong.”

Levi spoke quietly, “I did something wrong.”

Deacon turned to look at him, being mindful of where he was walking. “What do you mean?”

Levi didn’t look up at his friend, he felt like he couldn’t. “I cost you almost $370, I’m so sorry. I’ll get a job and pay you ba-“

Deacon smiled and lifted his hand to stop his friend from speaking.

“Like I said, don’t sweat it. I offered to buy you stuff you want, and you got what you want. If I’m honest, I thought you were going to spend more so if you want, we could get some lunch? Shopping makes me hungry...” Levi was at a loss for words. How could somebody spend so much on him and then query about spending MORE? He didn’t deserve this, he knew he didn’t deserve it, so why was he getting it?

“I don’t think you should spend more on me. This is more than enough and I can’t expect you to waste more of your money on me!”

Deacon didn’t understand what caused this outburst, but he felt that calming Levi down would be the best course of action.

“Hey it’s fine. Look, you don’t owe me anything. I’m doing this because I want to. You’ve not had the best time, so I want to help in any way I can. I know you aren’t a charity case and I’m not treating you like one, alright? I’d like you to tell me what you want to have for lunch.” He spoke firmly but calmly and reassuringly, which Levi appreciated.

“I don’t know. How about the taco truck that we passed earlier? Tacos sound really nice.”

Deacon nodded and they started walking to the truck a few blocks away.

“You ever had tacos, Levi?”

The younger man shook his head, but seemed excited to try them.

“Oh dude, you’ll love them. I think I can smell them from here, come on.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally arriving back at the dorm room, Levi and Deacon collapsed on the bed, sighing heavily.

“Man, we didn’t need to eat those tacos. Breakfast really filled me and the tacos overdid it, I think.”

Deacon grumbled in agreement. “Yeah, I know. Mistakes were made but goddamm, those were good tasting mistakes.” They chuckled lightly, almost regretting getting the extra food. “I had a good day though, we killed a good six hours.”

Levi sat up rather quickly, which he instantly regret doing.

“Ooh, fuck. We were out for six hours? Jeez, it felt like two at most.”

“Yeah, shopping is boring but the company makes it fun. Me and Louis always go shopping together if we need stuff, it gets us out and we have a good time.”

“Yeah, that’s fair enough. Speaking of Louis, did he get back to you?”

Deacon sat up, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Uh...yep. I’ve had three missed calls. He was able to charge his phone, then. Give me a moment.” He called back Louis while Levi looked at his new clothes, still in shock at the expense of the shoes. He zoned out as he felt all the materials and pictured himself wearing the different items, but was brought back to reality when he noticed that Deacon was quiet, and no longer on the phone.

“You okay?”

“I, uh...yeah. I’m alright.” Deacon started texting on his phone, and Levi wondered what took his attention away. He slipped his own shoes off and put on his new ones, admiring them.

“I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to dad later on.”

“...”

A few minutes later, the door was shoved open and a very out of breath Chloe arrived, panting heavily.

“Hhh...hey...wh-whhhhh...what’s up...?” She says next to Deacon, smiling and nodding at Levi while trying to catch her breath.

“I just got off the phone with Louis’ mom. He was killed in a car accident earlier today...”


End file.
